No. 3 South Carolina WBB escapes Louisville with win. What we learned
South Carolina women’s basketball got back in the win column on Thursday night.
Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks beat No. 22 Louisville 79-77 on the road at the KFC Yum! Center. South Carolina improves to 8-1 on the season.
Louisville gave USC a run for its money. The game was back and forth throughout and the Gamecocks — trailing by five points with 4:23 to go — snatched a win from the jaws of defeat in the final minutes of the game.
“I learned that we do have some resiliency to see it through,” Staley said. “Whether we won or lost this basketball game, it was a great game. We took steps forward. Fortunately for us, we won the game.”
Good ol’ fashioned shootout
South Carolina and Louisville looked like two heavyweights trading knockout blows on Thursday, fitting given the city produced boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
The Gamecocks and Cardinals both shot 63.2% from the field as teams in the first quarter. South Carolina held a 27-25 advantage at the end of the first. USC kept its shooting percentage over 50% in the second quarter and outscored Louisville by four, allowing the Gamecocks to take a 45-39 lead into the break.
Louisville punched back in the second half and out-shot and outscored South Carolina. USC, however, out-scored the Cardinals 11-4 in the game’s final four minutes.
There were 13 lead changes in the game. The most important came with 1:33 seconds remaining . A layup from Madina Okot gave South Carolina a 76-75 lead. The Gamecocks were able to keep a stronghold on the lead for the remainder of the game.
“It was a heavyweight boxing match, and it came down to just who was going to make the biggest plays that at the moment you need them the most,” Staley said.
Another Top 25 win for USC
South Carolina,with its win over Louisville, is now 2-1 on the year against ranked opponents. The Gamecocks also earned a Quad 1 win with the road victory over the Cardinals, who are ranked No. 15 in the NET rankings.
With the Louisville game in the rearview mirror, the toughest stretch of South Carolina’s non-conference schedule is in the books.
South Carolina split its two games in Vegas last week, beating a tough Duke team and losing a close game to a Top 5 Texas team.
The Gamecocks will finish out the month of December with five matchups against unranked teams. South Carolina will play N.C. Central and Penn State at home before traveling to face USF and Florida Gulf Coast before Christmas. The Gamecocks will play Providence at home before starting SEC play against Alabama on New Year’s Day.
The best of those games projects to be the Penn State or Providence matchups.
Gamecock of the game: Tessa Johnson
Junior guard Tessa Johnson found a way to get South Carolina points on Thursday seemingly whenever the Gamecocks needed them.
Johnson set a new season-high with 20 points against Louisville. She was 7 for 13 from the field and hit four 3-pointers as well.
“We all just came in kind of with the mindset of winning, and the ball just happened to find my hands and they went in,” Johnson said of her shooting.
She started the game off hot and scored 10 of South Carolina’s first 14 points. Johnson also tallied a season-high seven rebounds and three assists.
Okot, the senior transfer forward, recorded a double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Okot’s seven points in the last 2:36 of the game helped South Carolina retake the lead late and secure the win.
“I think Madina has to be in more situations like this to continue to rise to the challenge,” Staley said. “I know she’ll probably spend a lot of time just beating herself up regarding the missed free throws and the missed layups. But you look at the stat sheet, she’s 10 for 16, she got 13 rebounds, 23 points and she probably doesn’t think she played well. But we don’t win if she’s not on our side.”
South Carolina WBB’s next four games
- Sunday: vs NC Central, 12 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)
- Dec. 14: vs Penn State, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
- Dec. 18 at South Florida, TBA (ESPN+)
- Dec. 20 at Florida Gulf Coast, 2 p.m. (ESPN+)
This story was originally published December 4, 2025 at 9:02 PM.
